CHRISTOPHER Lamberth’s family say they now want to move on with their lives following Paul Holcroft’s appeal.

Dawn Wright, Christopher’s mum, said: “We have all tried to say as little as possible so far – sometimes not saying anything or not retaliating is the best form of defence.

“I have been told on numerous occasions that our family have conducted ourselves in a dignified manner throughout this horrific ordeal. We have lost a precious son, brother, uncle, grandson, nephew and friend, however, we are not the losers here.

“We know we had a very well respected and fair judge. Holcroft was found guilty of murder and was given a life sentence of which he now has to serve a minimum of 16 years before he can apply for parole.

“By recent comparisons, that could quite easily have been an eight-year sentence had the original judge started at the ‘12 years’ initial stage.

“We feel the sentence, although it will never bring Chris back and in our eyes will never be enough years, is more than we could ever have hoped for.

“How can we be unhappy with that? We stand by the judges’ decision and are thankful that his murderer will not be wandering ‘our’ streets for a considerable length of time.

“We are moving on to the next new chapter in our lives by concentrating on each other and are still taking each day as it comes – but it doesn’t mean our lives can never be happy again.

“It will be hard but if we can get through this, we can get through anything.

“We have been shown that we have made far more new friends than we have enemies and on behalf of myself and the rest of my family we would like to thank everyone for their support and friendship throughout.

“Christopher gave us lots of fantastic happy memories in his short life. He will never ever be forgotten. We love him and miss him so very much. Every memory is one we are proud to treasure forever.”